FSIS Shares Science that Modernized Campylobacter Screening in Poultry

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) published an article on modernizing the Campylobacter screening process in the peer-reviewed journal Food Protection Trends on July 1.

The article, “Improving Enrichment of Campylobacter on Poultry for Enhanced Laboratory System Performance,” identifies and evaluates Campylobacter enrichment broths capable of 24-hour enrichment. In 2021, FSIS tested four enrichment broths in five poultry products for maximal recovery of Campylobacter. These enrichment broths were then evaluated for the minimum time-to-results, with the goal of identifying a method that might best optimize reporting time.

Data collected during this study informed updates to the FSIS Microbiology Laboratory Guidebook (MLG 41).

In March 2022, FSIS began using a new Campylobacter enrichment medium at all three field service laboratories to analyze poultry samples. This update reduced the enrichment incubation time from approximately 48 to 24 hours. It also resulted in reduced reporting times from three to two days for a screened negative result, and from five to four days for a confirmed positive result.

Read the article to learn more about FSIS’ evaluation of different Campylobacter enrichment media. Open access will be available in December. Email Neal Golden at neal.golden@usda.gov for a copy of the manuscript.